On Education

Having had the immense pleasure and honor of working with children for several years, I am very concerned about the impact our current educational system has on them. I personally believe we ought to be working towards a revolution in the way we educate our youngsters. That is why I am impressed by Portuguese teen entrepreneur, Ricardo Sousa, who has founded the "Movement for Change in Education". MCE hopes to be an enabler and a catalyzer for local action demanding an education model where creativity, entrepreneurship and individual talent are taken into consideration. ricardosousa.me

VIA ricardojrsousa.wordpress.com

My curiosity on ways to view and involve children holistically in education led me to Sir Ken Robins' work and I reveled in watching his TED speech in Monteray, California. This extraordinary man shares with us his thoughts on how our current educational system stifles children's creativity. 


Sir Ken Robinson is an author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non profits, education and arts bodies. He was Director of the Arts Schools Project (1985-89), Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick (1989-2001), and was knighted in 2003 for services to education. Wikipedia

Below are a few of his inspirational words for those who don't have 20 minutes to spare to listen and reflect on where our current educational system takes the keepers of this world's future.  


"Creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status" 


"Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects...At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities and at the bottom are the arts."



"Our task is to educate [children's] whole being so they can face [the] future."

"Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not, because the thing they were good at at schooled wasn't valued or was actually stigmatized." 


"We know...about intelligence:
Intelligence is diverse: We think about the world in all the way we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically, [we think] in abstract terms, we think in movement.
Intelligence is dynamic: Creativity...more often than not, comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things."


"We have to rethink the fundamental principles by which we are educating our children."


Finally, my personal favorite: 
"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original"


Watch it, you will be inspired!

I've got life!

Legendary singer and songwriter Nina Simone inspired me today!

Living in the heart of Athens, Greece, during this time of political chaos and social upheaval has proved to be both despairing and inspiring.

Needless to say, despair comes with realizing that millions of lives, hopes and dreams have been completely undermined and disdained, traded in for the force of greed, for the hunger of the few who need more and more to live in their version of peace! Despair is at the heart of moments like the ones of this past week, when hundreds of Greek citizens were hospitalized due to the brutal use of violence by the police force! Despair advances with seeing more and more educated and resourceful young men and women being laid off, not producing as their energy and fruitfulness allows them to, rather fleeing the country for a better tomorrow or giving up their dreams for a piece of bread!

Yet, at times like these, one cannot help but feel inspired! There is inspiration in the nation's biggest plateia (square), where hundreds of thousands have peacefully protested for over 25 days and nights, sharing their hope that tomorrow will be a better day and their dreams will not be derided. There is inspiration in knowing deep within, that from chaos, all great things are created! Inspiration also comes in returning to ourselves, looking within and painfully and bravely understanding that there is a reason why each and every one of us is involved in this massive muddle. Yet, the most pronounced inspiration is the remembrance that one doesn't need much to be happy or complete; because we have been given the greatest gift of all: our life!


Nina Simone inspired me today by reminding me to keep it simple and to be grateful for the generous present that is my life!

How much inspiration are you inviting into your own precious life?